Koffing Line/B2W2
Koffing is a quite rare Pokémon in Black 2 and White 2, only being found in the inner area of the Virbank Complex. It has a 15% encounter rate of appearing in both the normal and the dark grass, so there's a relatively low chance you'll catch one before the League. In the post-game, wild Weezing can be found in the P2 Laboratory, where they have a 15% chance of appearing in the normal dark grass. Koffing debuted in RBY, where its main job was to annoy players as much as possible with its wide variety of moves to cause poison, its physical bulk, and of course SelfDestruct and Explosion. Then, since Generation III, Levitate became the Koffing line's sole Ability, removing their weakness to Ground-type attacks. The Koffing line is also able to learn a wide variety of TMs, both damaging ones like Flamethrower and Thunder, or supportive ones, like Will-O-Wisp and Toxic. That's where Generation V's mechanics come in handy. Re-usable TMs were greatly welcomed by the Koffing Line. But even though it has great physical bulk, only one weakness and a wide variety of moves, the line also has a few drawbacks, like a low HP and Special Defense stat compared to its Defense, and Attack and Special Attack stats that won't OHKO a lot of opponents. Important Matchups - Challenge Mode = * Gym #2 - Roxie (Virbank City, Poison-type): If you have taught your Koffing the Thief TM, which you can find in the Virbank Complex, you could steal the Oran Berry off Roxie's Koffing or Sitrus Berry off Whirlipede. Doing this against Whirlipede is not recommended, though. It now has Rollout, and you have absolutely no way to hit Whirlipede back. Her Koffing is possible: Assurance spam if yours is higher leveled should work. Alternatively, you could battle her Grimer, which has absolutely no chance to hurt you hard. Mud-Slap and Poison Gas both don't affect you, and Venoshock isn't really effective. Try using Tackle or Thief before going for Assurance, because Grimer can use Disable. Maybe pack a Potion or two, since Roxie will have healing items as well. * Gym #3 - Burgh (Castelia City, Bug-type): Again, keep away from Dwebble unless you can attach the Eviolite to Koffing. Shelmet only has moves that are not very effective against Koffing, so Sludge or Venoshock spam will take it down. Karrablast can use both Aerial Ace and Headbutt, which are both no problem thanks to Koffing's Defense. Again, Sludge or Venoshock spam is the way to go. Leavanny became more dangerous than it was in Easy and Normal Mode. It now has GrassWhistle, which will put you to sleep instantly, unless it misses, since you won't be outspeeding it ever, and then strike back using Aerial Ace. Koffing can take an Aerial Ace or two, but while being asleep, it can't do anything back. A Fire- or Flying-type will fare a lot better against Leavanny here. * Colress (Route 4): Magnemite and Klink are both Steel-types, and the best move Koffing can use against them so far is Assurance. A clear nope. * Gym #4 - Elesa (Nimbasa City, Electric-type): Keep Koffing away here. All of her Pokémon know Volt Switch, which will hurt Koffing badly due to its mediocre Special Defense stat. No alternatives. Just don't use it. * Rood (Driftveil City): His Herdier isn't too bad for Koffing to take, since it only knows physical moves. Watch out for the Defense-lowering Crunch and the STAB Take Down, though. Oh, and spam Sludge or Venoshock or use Poison Gas first. That ought to take it down. Swoobat has the special STAB move Air Cutter, as well as the super effective Heart Stamp. Don't use Koffing here, it's too much of a risk. * Gym #5 - Clay (Driftveil City, Ground-type): Clay got notably harder here. For Koffing to succeed here, please have it evolved into Weezing already. Otherwise, stay out. Krokorok's Crunch hits hard, but with Poison Gas and Venoshock, it will go down fairly easily with Weezing. Sandslash is still risky, since it has Crush Claw and Hone Claws, and higher defensive stats than Krokorok. Onix is quite funny to battle, if you have enough healing items. The funny thing is that Rock/Ground-types have a double resistance against Poison-type moves. The poison status is your best friend here, as it slowly drains Onix's HP away. Don't worry about it using Rock Slide or Explosion, those moves come from a ludicrously low Attack stat, so that they won't hurt Weezing at all. Pack some healing items to be safe, though. Excadrill is no. * Hugh (Pokémon World Tournament): Hugh should be no big deal. The starter and Tranquill will fall quickly, seeing as they're probably five to ten levels lower, and Simisage and Simisear should as well. Watch out for Simipour, as it packs the powerful special move Scald, which will hurt. Sludge Bomb is your best friend here, but if you don't have that yet, Sludge and Venoshock spam, yet again. * Cheren (Pokémon World Tournament, Normal-type): Cheren's team should have been more scary, but he only has Pokémon that can use physical moves. Keep dodging those Sings from Cinccino and Hypnosises from Watchog and you're fine. * Colress (Pokémon World Tournament): Honestly, there are better options than Weezing. Colress is a different story. You just can't hit Steel-types, which his Magneton and Klink are. Since you're overleveled, you could try to battle Elgyem, but you should have better options for this one. * Gym #6 - Skyla (Mistralton City, Flying-type): Her first Pokémon is a Swoobat that is able to use Psychic. Needless to say, no. Then next up, Skarmory. A Steel-type. No. Third up, a Sigilyph, also packing Psychic. You guessed correctly, no. As her last Pokémon, we have Swanna, which is able to use the special moves BubbleBeam and Air Slash. No. And that brings us to our conclusion of nope. * Hugh (Undella Town): Unfezant is dangerous as no other. Air Slash is a special move, and even though it doesn't have a high Special Attack stat, Weezing just doesn't like to take those Air Slashes to the face. Simisage and Serperior are laughably weak for Weezing. Sludge Bomb spam. Simisear and Simipour are both no, since they have Charcoal Flame Burst and Mystic Water Scald, respectively. Emboar has Charcoal Heat Crash and Rollout, which makes it risky but not impossible if you have healing items. Finally, there's Samurott, whose strongest move to hit you is Aqua Jet. Needless to say, easy win thanks to Sludge Bomb spam... but hope you don't leave it in low health, since it has Torrent. * Zinzolin (Lacunosa Town, tag battle with Hugh): Cryogonal has the special STAB Ice Beam, which will hurt Weezing badly. Golbat can use Air Cutter as its only special move, which shouldn't hit too hard, but Weezing has no way to hit back either, except through Payback, Return or Will-O-Wisp, three TMs that you can have by now. Sneasel goes down easily, as it only has physical moves. The last Pokémon is Garbodor, that won't be able to damage you either. Again, Payback, Return or Will-O-Wisp will do wonders here. * Gym #7 - Drayden (Opelucid City, Dragon-type): Druddigon, Flygon and Haxorus still get crippled due to Will-O-Wisp. Take them out with Weezing, but flee from Altaria, since the latter packs powerful special moves like Dragon Pulse and Fire Blast, not to mention it can use Sing. And of course, all his other Pokémon will still force switches with Dragon Tail. Note that Clear Smog is a helpful move to have here, just in case Haxorus gets off one too many Dragon Dances. * Zinzolin (Opelucid City): Both Cryogonal know Ice Beam, so no. Weavile only packs physical moves, so you can easily hurt it. Will-O-Wisp will help in taking it down. You can also have picked up Fire Blast in Lacunosa Town now, which will fry Weavile. * Shadow (Opelucid City): The two Pawniard have nothing on Weezing's new Fire Blast. If you didn't teach Weezing Fire Blast, then please stay away here, since Absol knows the powerful Psychic-type move Future Sight. * Gym #8 - Marlon (Humilau City, Water-type): Please stay away here. All of Marlon's Pokémon can use the powerful STAB special Water-type move Scald, which will deal massive damage to your Weezing. * Zinzolin (Plasma Frigate, tag battle with Hugh): In the tag battle with the Grunt, both of Zinzolin's Cryogonal are impossible, due to Ice Beam. Weavile gets taken down, again, thanks to Fire Blast and Will-O-Wisp. The Grunt's Pokémon all are physical attackers (Liepard, Watchog, Scolipede in order), and Weezing takes them out easily as well. * Zinzolin (Plasma Frigate): The single battle against Zinzolin after that is exactly the same: stay away from Cryogonal, but take out Weavile. * Colress (Plasma Frigate): Stay away. Nearly all of Colress's Pokémon know special moves on a fairly high Special Attack, and the only one who doesn't is Metang. And it has Zen Headbutt, a Psychic-type move, meaning Weezing's only weakness. Again, don't let Weezing participate here. * Shadow battle #1 (Plasma Frigate): All of the Shadow Triad members have two Pawniard, and they all get destroyed by Fire Blast. Absol, which still knows Future Sight, is better avoided. * Shadow battle #2 (Plasma Frigate): Blast the Pawniard yet again. Accelgor, whose attacking moves don't seem threatening at first, can use Me First to send an even more powerful Fire Blast at you, if you used that move in the first place. If you attack it with Sludge Bomb, then you should be able to take it down. * Shadow battle #3 (Plasma Frigate): More Pawniard nuking. Banette knows Psychic, so it definitely has to be avoided. * Black/White Kyurem (Giant Chasm): Kyurem-W is the biggest nope ever, due to it knowing Fusion Flare, among other powerful special moves. Kyurem-B is threatening, but less so. If you were to battle it with Weezing, use Will-O-Wisp or Toxic on the first turn, and then switch out; with Will-O-Wisp you have chances of staying in too, since Weezing's good bulk allows it to not die to Kyurem's hits, but don't risk it and heal often. * Ghetsis (Giant Chasm): Cofagrigus knows Psychic, you know the drill. Seismitoad can use Muddy Water, so no either. Eelektross' Thunderbolt will hit hard, no thank you. Drapion is more than possible, since its only move that can hit Weezing is Night Slash. Will-O-Wisp and finish with Fire Blast or Thunder. Toxicroak knows Shadow Ball, but off a pretty weak Special Attack. Still, it isn't recommended, as Ghetsis's last and most powerful Pokémon is Hydreigon... which only knows physical moves. Dragon Rush and Crunch are powerful, but get one Will-O-Wisp in and the Dark/Dragon-type is crippled. * Hugh (Victory Road): Hugh got a lot easier for Weezing. The clear nopes are Simipour and Samurott, due to Surf, and Simisear and Emboar, due to Flamethrower. Unfezant now only has physical moves, which Weezing laughs at before using Thunder. Will-O-Wisp will work fine, but watch out for Facade. Serperior and Simisage go down against Sludge Bomb. Then, we have his newest addition, Bouffalant. Also physically based. Will-O-Wisp, and destroy it. Watch out for Head Charge, as it hits really hard. * Elite Four Shauntal (Pokémon League, Ghost-type): Every single one of Shauntal's Pokémon knows Psychic, except for Golurk. That makes Golurk the only Pokémon that Weezing is capable of taking out, again, thanks to Will-O-Wisp. * Elite Four Marshal (Pokémon League, Fighting-type): Sawk and Mienshao are as easy as ever for Weezing thanks to Will-O-Wisp, but Throh and Conkeldurr are completely different stories. Both of them boast Guts, which means their Attack skyrockets if they are affected by a status, even if it's a burn, which normally cuts their Attack. Throh could be possible, but due to quite some bulk and all of Weezing's moves that give status problems, it isn't recommended. Conkeldurr is completely forbidden, since it holds a Flame Orb to inflict a status problem anyway. Lucario uses special moves, so no, keep Weezing out of there. * Elite Four Grimsley (Pokémon League, Dark-type): Thank Marshal for all those Pokémon with physical moves. Although, Absol can use Psycho Cut with the Super Luck Ability, so keep Weezing away there. For all his other Pokémon, watch his stock of Full Restores, be wary of Crunch's Defense drops, and Will-O-Wisp everything. * Elite Four Caitlin (Pokémon League, Psychic-type): An explanation is unnecessary here. All of Caitlin's Pokémon know either Psychic, Dream Eater or Zen Headbutt, so no. * Champion Iris (Pokémon League, Dragon-type): Hydreigon has a moveset completely built around special moves, so a big nope there. Druddigon has no way to truly hurt you when you burned it with Will-O-Wisp, so go nuts there. Archeops hits hard, but hit it with either Thunder or Will-O-Wisp and it's crippled, the former because of Defeatist, and the latter because of the burn halving its damage. Aggron is slower than Weezing, so a Will-O-Wisp will render it useless pretty soon. Lapras, on the other hand, has a full special moveset again plus Sing, so get out of there. Lastly, there's Haxorus. Watch out, because Earthquake will hit Weezing for super effective damage because of Haxorus's Mold Breaker. Will-O-Wisp it quickly, then knock it out before Iris can use a Full Restore. * Post-Game: Weezing keeps doing its job like before. Keep him away from Pokémon with a high Special Attack and Psychic-types, and Will-O-Wisp everything else. Then your Weezing should be fine. }} Moves The Koffing line's level-up moves are a bit bland, and what you would expect of a floating ball of gas. A Koffing of level 1 knows the moves Poison Gas and Tackle. At level 4, it learns Smog, a move with low power, but high chance to inflict poisoning. Then, at level 7, SmokeScreen comes. Not too useful. Level 12 comes with Assurance, which isn't a bad move at first, but quickly gets outclassed. At level 15, Koffing learns Clear Smog, which may prove to be helpful against set-up 'mons, but since there aren't many of those, Clear Smog isn't as useful as it could have been. Low power as well. At level 18, Sludge is Koffing's newest move. Sludge, unlike all Poison-type moves Koffing has learned so far, will prove to be extremely useful for that part of the game. At level 23, it learns SelfDestruct. An explanation of why this is a bad idea isn't even needed. Level 26 comes with Haze, which is basically a nerfed Clear Smog that can affect Steel-types. Pretty much useless. Gyro Ball can be learned at level 29, but low PP and few Pokémon that get hit super effectively by it, make it a mediocre to bad move. One level before evolving, level 34, Koffing learns Sludge Bomb, which comes right at the time Sludge began to get outclassed. Sludge Bomb is a great move for the Koffing Line, due to high power and STAB. Then, after its evolution into Weezing, comes, at level 40, Explosion. Same explanation as with SelfDestruct. Level 46 comes with Destiny Bond. Unless you want your Weezing to die, this move is worthless. And last and least, at level 54 comes Memento, which is literally the worst move ever to use in a nuzlocke. TMs are entirely different for the Koffing Line, though. The first relatively useful TM for Koffing is Return. You get Return as quickly as right after the first gym, so the move should be useful for about every Pokémon at that point, though. The next move is Thief, which is found in the Virbank Complex. Thief makes sure Koffing can steal some valuable items from certain wild Pokémon, and has the bulk to not be punished for using it. Thief quickly gets outclassed due to its low power, though. The third move is again a powerful move. Venoshock is received from Roxie, and especially powerful when Koffing/Weezing still knows Poison Gas. With this combination of moves, Koffing/Weezing can deal harsh damage, even on its so-so Special Attack stat. The next move comes in the form of Payback on Unova's Route 16. This move is good because of the Koffing Line's low Speed stat. In Celestial Tower comes what is the Koffing line's best status move: Will-O-Wisp. The Koffing line can cripple entire teams due to the combination of its high Defense and the burn halving the attacking Pokémon's Attack. Then comes, behind the Strange House in Reversal Mountain, the TM Shadow Ball. It's a good move at first, but quickly gets outclassed by the two next attacking moves: Fire Blast and Thunder, which can both be bought in Lacunosa Town. They both give the Koffing Line a huge power boost, but Fire Blast is slightly more useful. The next TM is yet again a status move, Toxic. This TM can be found in Seaside Cave. On Route 23, TM Flamethrower can be received, and not much later, in Victory Road, Thunderbolt as well. These two moves can serve as substitutes for Thunder and Fire Blast, since they have higher PP and accuracy. In the post-game, there is also the TM for Sludge Bomb. As for the tutor moves, there are only two notably good moves the Koffing Line gets this way, and those are Pain Split and Dark Pulse. The former isn't really necessary, and the latter is mostly a way to attack Psychic-types, which the Koffing Line should never be battling anyway. Recommended moveset: Will-O-Wisp / Toxic, Sludge Bomb / Venoshock only, Fire Blast / Flamethrower, Thunder / Thunderbolt Other Koffing's stats Weezing's stats * What Nature do I want? Definitely a nature that boosts Defense. Either Relaxed or Lax should be the best, since the Koffing Line won't be abusing its Speed or Special Defense stats anyway. Bold is a possibility, since the Koffing line's late movepool consists mainly of special moves. * At what point in the game should I be evolved? As soon as possible. In a Challenge Mode nuzlocke, definitely right before Clay. Otherwise, after the first Pokémon World Tournament is held, but not much later. * How good is the Koffing line in a Nuzlocke? Well, it's not that good, because of its pure Poison-type. It has only one weakness, but that comes with a relatively bad HP and Special Defense stat, and few Pokémon it can hit super effectively with STAB. On the other hand, it gets a lot of coverage moves, and does great as a physical wall, especially with Will-O-Wisp. It's definitely worth using. * Weaknesses: Psychic * Resistances: Bug, Poison, Grass, Fighting * Immunities: Ground (Levitate) * Neutralities: Normal, Fire, Water, Dark, Steel, Ice, Dragon, Ghost, Flying, Rock, Electric Category:Black 2/White 2 Category:List of Evolutionary Lines with Completed Analyses